FINAL GIRL explores the slasher flicks of the '70s and '80s...and all the other horror movies I feel like talking about, too. This is life on the EDGE, so beware yon spoilers!

Jul 7, 2017

Now listen up!

Please, if I may speak for every single horror fan in the world, let me say this: horror fans never shy away from a bad movie. Sure, some of them are rage-inducing (for some examples, I suggest perusing the succinctly titled "go fuck yourself" tag). But there is something about a delightfully bad movie, movies made completely in earnest that just don't work that is so endearing and entertaining–your Shark Attack 3: Megalodons, your Nail Gun Massacres–that are a cause for celebration amongst horror fans. We embrace them but hard and spread 'em around like the very best herpes.

What I find fascinating, though, is when the non-horror fans–you know, the squares–weigh in. Nothing, then, is off-limits from their critical eyes! Classics aren't safe! No movie is unassailable! Our top tens and unholy grails are laughed at, put down, and scooped out right out from under us like yesterday's cat litter. While horror fans are not a monolith by any means, there's still a canon, right? Stuff like...oh, I don't know...Suspiria. A total masterpiece! Yeah yeah, the plot is thin and some acting is dodgy but who cares? Suspiria rules!


Then an outlander comes along and goes, "Nah, it's bad."

"But but...look at it!" you cry sneer. "It's...just...look at it! And that score!"

"Yeah, I get that. But still, it's a bad movie," they respond. And then you start to question everything! Is it bad? Can it be legitimately brilliant and legitimately not so simultaneously?

Okay, so instead of all of this playing out hypothetically, you can listen to it all play out for real! That's right, I was a guest last night on The Download, a show out of Chicago's WGN Radio, and we talked about bad movies, good-bad movies, the best bad movies, and lots more in between. Get it in your earholes by CLICKING RIGHT HERE.

Listen! As I lose my mind when someone suggests that Candyman is bad. Thrill! As I try to spread the gospel of Its Holiness Cathy's Curse.

Geez Louise, I love Cathy's Curse. So much so that...well, check this out:


Toot toot, there is the sound of my own horn. That's right, I honk it proudly and loudly because being quoted on the new Cathy's Curse Blu-ray and DVD is like a dream come true....and in this workaday world, we need all the joy we can get before the sun expands and consumes us. (YES there is a restored 2k Blu-ray of Cathy's Curse, can you believe it? What a time to be alive!)

Here is the thing about being on that radio show, though: they referred to this here Final Girl as being, well, dead. I formerly had this blog and all. I suppose that's sort of true, as I did officially put it on hiatus some time back, but...man, you guys, it really, really bummed me out hearing that. It actually gave me the sads to think about this site in the past tense (I mean, I have posted a couple of times since the hiatus), to act like it's dead or talk about it like it's not standing right there, hello, listening to us. So I don't know. I think I should do something about that. My horror feelings took a nosedive for a while there, a long while, but the flames have been fanned over the last couple of months and maybe it's time to get the band back together?

But anyway. Suspiria. Bad? But...just...just look at it!






screencaps courtesy Screenmusings

18 comments:

Unknown said...

I'll give it a listen tonight. Glad to see you back.

deadlydolls said...

WELCOME BACK YOU BEAUTIFUL CREATURE YOU!

Stacie Ponder said...

BLESS YOU BOTH. @deadlydolls...oh my goodness, did my mention of CATHY'S CURSE summon you?? IT WORKS!!!

Bill the Heliotrope said...

Hey! You got on Chicago radio without me! IT'S SO TOUCHING WHEN THEY GROW UP BIG!

(Clicking on link now…)

—Bill Walsh

Dmc said...

My wish came true! Halloween came early! Sheeee's baaaack....
Stacie, I love what you do. Long may you wave.

Stacie Ponder said...

Oh man, thanks so much for the nice words...that's very kind and it means a lot!

Christine Hadden said...

I'm on hiatus too, so I'm glad to hear/see that the urge to get back into it does exist. Welcome back!

Stacie Ponder said...

Thank you! Yeah, I get it. For a long time I wasn't even watching any horror, never mind having the desire to write about it. And since it's been such a huge part of my identity for so long, it threw me for a loop for a bit. But it's okay. And if I'd never watched another horror movie, well, that would have been okay too. EVERYTHING IS OKAY

Christine Hadden said...

That was my gripe, I wasn't enjoying the films because I was too busy thinking about writing about them! PHOOEY! 😉

Stacie Ponder said...

YES oh my goodness, even when my Final Girl output was the heaviest, it was SO NICE to watch something with no pressure, without having to think about it at all!

Anonymous said...

If returning from hiatus becomes a "thing", I would also like to order another JILL SANDWICH!

Stacie Ponder said...

Heeeyyyy, ooooooh, now you're talking! It's so weird: I play a ton of games, I love reading gaming news, I follow so much of it, I have a platform...and I rarely write about them? I don't get it. But I appreciate your vote of confidence, I'll try to step it up

2 THE STREETS

Anonymous said...

Hooray for the return of the blog! I've checked in here every now and then to see if things had revived. In its heyday this was one of my top waste-time-when-I-should-be-working destinations.

Stacie Ponder said...

Aw thank you so much! If I had a heart, y'all surely would have warmed it by now!

smogo said...

Yes, please come back!!!

Daniel B? said...

Welcome back! You were missed.

(Are you back? Come on back...)

I will listen to that radio show tout suite.

I have had your Suspiria experience several times in my life, including with Suspiria. I think some people are hardwired to consider all horror films crap. No matter how much the film is not crap. A couple weekends ago, I had a non-horror similar experience. I was watching For Your Eyes Only and some relatives stopped by. They spent the whole movie laughing at the film (not in a nice way) and saying things like "I remember James Bond films being good when I was younger." I almost threw them from my home.

Cathy's Curse Forever! I love that movie. I got the Blu-Ray. Congrats on the quote. Hooray! I just got a quote on the back of the Blackenstein Blu-Ray. It includes the word "greasier." So, I've got that going for me.

J. Skel LaTour said...

Look, it's Stacie all on the medias. Excellent!

goblin said...

Hey Stacie, I thought you might get a kick out of this: I don't know if you're at all familiar with Red Letter Media. It's basically a group of guys based in Milwaukee who make their own little silly B-movies and who also have a YouTube channel where they mainly do movie reviews. One of their shows is called Best of the Worst where they, you guessed it, watch terrible, awful, cheap-o flicks and then decide which one of them is the least terrible and awful.

Well, to get to the point: In their latest episode, the Halloween special, they featured your favorite, Cathy's Curse! The guys almost lose their minds as they try to make sense of the movie. It was a blast to watch— or at least I thought so. Give it a watch if you're interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1QJazEHMUo&t=0s

There's even a shot of the back of the Blu-ray with your quote on it around the 10.30 mark!